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<refentry id="systemd.socket">
  <refentryinfo>
    <title>systemd.socket</title>
    <productname>systemd</productname>

    <authorgroup>
      <author>
        <contrib>Developer</contrib>
        <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
        <surname>Poettering</surname>
        <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
      </author>
    </authorgroup>
  </refentryinfo>

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>
    <refname>systemd.socket</refname>
    <refpurpose>Socket unit configuration</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>
    <para><filename><replaceable>socket</replaceable>.socket</filename></para>
  </refsynopsisdiv>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>

    <para>A unit configuration file whose name ends in
    <literal>.socket</literal> encodes information about an IPC or
    network socket or a file system FIFO controlled and supervised by
    systemd, for socket-based activation.</para>

    <para>This man page lists the configuration options specific to
    this unit type. See
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    for the common options of all unit configuration files. The common
    configuration items are configured in the generic [Unit] and
    [Install] sections. The socket specific configuration options are
    configured in the [Socket] section.</para>

    <para>Additional options are listed in
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
    which define the execution environment the
    <option>ExecStartPre=</option>, <option>ExecStartPost=</option>,
    <option>ExecStopPre=</option> and <option>ExecStopPost=</option>
    commands are executed in, and in
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
    which define the way the processes are terminated, and in
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
    which configure resource control settings for the processes of the
    socket.</para>

    <para>For each socket file, a matching service file must exist,
    describing the service to start on incoming traffic on the socket
    (see
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    for more information about .service files). The name of the
    .service unit is by default the same as the name of the .socket
    unit, but can be altered with the <option>Service=</option> option
    described below. Depending on the setting of the
    <option>Accept=</option> option described below, this .service
    unit must either be named like the .socket unit, but with the
    suffix replaced, unless overridden with <option>Service=</option>;
    or it must be a template unit named the same way. Example: a
    socket file <filename>foo.socket</filename> needs a matching
    service <filename>foo.service</filename> if
    <option>Accept=false</option> is set. If
    <option>Accept=true</option> is set, a service template file
    <filename>foo@.service</filename> must exist from which services
    are instantiated for each incoming connection.</para>

    <para>Unless <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname> is set to
    <option>false</option>, socket units will implicitly have
    dependencies of type <varname>Requires=</varname> and
    <varname>After=</varname> on <filename>sysinit.target</filename>
    as well as dependencies of type <varname>Conflicts=</varname> and
    <varname>Before=</varname> on
    <filename>shutdown.target</filename>. These ensure that socket
    units pull in basic system initialization, and are terminated
    cleanly prior to system shutdown. Only sockets involved with early
    boot or late system shutdown should disable this option.</para>

    <para>Socket units will have a <varname>Before=</varname>
    dependency on the service which they trigger added implicitly. No
    implicit <varname>WantedBy=</varname> or
    <varname>RequiredBy=</varname> dependency from the socket to the
    service is added. This means that the service may be started
    without the socket, in which case it must be able to open sockets
    by itself. To prevent this, an explicit
    <varname>Requires=</varname> dependency may be added.</para>

    <para>Socket units may be used to implement on-demand starting of
    services, as well as parallelized starting of services. See the
    blog stories linked at the end for an introduction.</para>

    <para>Note that the daemon software configured for socket
    activation with socket units needs to be able to accept sockets
    from systemd, either via systemd's native socket passing interface
    (see
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    for details) or via the traditional
    <citerefentry project='freebsd'><refentrytitle>inetd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>-style
    socket passing (i.e. sockets passed in via standard input and
    output, using <varname>StandardInput=socket</varname> in the
    service file).</para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Options</title>

    <para>Socket files must include a [Socket] section, which carries
    information about the socket or FIFO it supervises. A number of
    options that may be used in this section are shared with other
    unit types. These options are documented in
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    and
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
    The options specific to the [Socket] section of socket units are
    the following:</para>

    <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenStream=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>ListenDatagram=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>ListenSequentialPacket=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies an address to listen on for a stream
        (<constant>SOCK_STREAM</constant>), datagram
        (<constant>SOCK_DGRAM</constant>), or sequential packet
        (<constant>SOCK_SEQPACKET</constant>) socket, respectively.
        The address can be written in various formats:</para>

        <para>If the address starts with a slash
        (<literal>/</literal>), it is read as file system socket in
        the <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> socket family.</para>

        <para>If the address starts with an at symbol
        (<literal>@</literal>), it is read as abstract namespace
        socket in the <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> family. The
        <literal>@</literal> is replaced with a
        <constant>NUL</constant> character before binding. For
        details, see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>unix</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>

        <para>If the address string is a single number, it is read as
        port number to listen on via IPv6. Depending on the value of
        <varname>BindIPv6Only=</varname> (see below) this might result
        in the service being available via both IPv6 and IPv4
        (default) or just via IPv6.
        </para>

        <para>If the address string is a string in the format
        v.w.x.y:z, it is read as IPv4 specifier for listening on an
        address v.w.x.y on a port z.</para>

        <para>If the address string is a string in the format [x]:y,
        it is read as IPv6 address x on a port y. Note that this might
        make the service available via IPv4, too, depending on the
        <varname>BindIPv6Only=</varname> setting (see below).
        </para>

        <para>Note that <constant>SOCK_SEQPACKET</constant> (i.e.
        <varname>ListenSequentialPacket=</varname>) is only available
        for <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> sockets.
        <constant>SOCK_STREAM</constant> (i.e.
        <varname>ListenStream=</varname>) when used for IP sockets
        refers to TCP sockets, <constant>SOCK_DGRAM</constant> (i.e.
        <varname>ListenDatagram=</varname>) to UDP.</para>

        <para>These options may be specified more than once, in which
        case incoming traffic on any of the sockets will trigger
        service activation, and all listed sockets will be passed to
        the service, regardless of whether there is incoming traffic
        on them or not. If the empty string is assigned to any of
        these options, the list of addresses to listen on is reset,
        all prior uses of any of these options will have no
        effect.</para>

        <para>It is also possible to have more than one socket unit
        for the same service when using <varname>Service=</varname>,
        and the service will receive all the sockets configured in all
        the socket units. Sockets configured in one unit are passed in
        the order of configuration, but no ordering between socket
        units is specified.</para>

        <para>If an IP address is used here, it is often desirable to
        listen on it before the interface it is configured on is up
        and running, and even regardless of whether it will be up and
        running at any point. To deal with this, it is recommended to
        set the <varname>FreeBind=</varname> option described
        below.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenFIFO=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a file system FIFO to listen on.
        This expects an absolute file system path as argument.
        Behavior otherwise is very similar to the
        <varname>ListenDatagram=</varname> directive
        above.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenSpecial=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a special file in the file system to
        listen on. This expects an absolute file system path as
        argument. Behavior otherwise is very similar to the
        <varname>ListenFIFO=</varname> directive above. Use this to
        open character device nodes as well as special files in
        <filename>/proc</filename> and
        <filename>/sys</filename>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenNetlink=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a Netlink family to create a socket
        for to listen on. This expects a short string referring to the
        <constant>AF_NETLINK</constant> family name (such as
        <varname>audit</varname> or <varname>kobject-uevent</varname>)
        as argument, optionally suffixed by a whitespace followed by a
        multicast group integer. Behavior otherwise is very similar to
        the <varname>ListenDatagram=</varname> directive
        above.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenMessageQueue=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a POSIX message queue name to listen
        on. This expects a valid message queue name (i.e. beginning
        with /). Behavior otherwise is very similar to the
        <varname>ListenFIFO=</varname> directive above. On Linux
        message queue descriptors are actually file descriptors and
        can be inherited between processes.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenUSBFunction=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a <ulink
        url="https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/usb/functionfs.txt">USB
        FunctionFS</ulink> endpoint location to listen on, for
        implementation of USB gadget functions. This expects an
        absolute file system path as the argument. Behavior otherwise
        is very similar to the <varname>ListenFIFO=</varname>
        directive above. Use this to open FunctionFS endpoint
        <filename>ep0</filename>. When using this option, the
        activated service has to have the
        <varname>USBFunctionDescriptors=</varname> and
        <varname>USBFunctionStrings=</varname> options set.
        </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>BindIPv6Only=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a one of <option>default</option>,
        <option>both</option> or <option>ipv6-only</option>. Controls
        the IPV6_V6ONLY socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>ipv6</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details). If <option>both</option>, IPv6 sockets bound
        will be accessible via both IPv4 and IPv6. If
        <option>ipv6-only</option>, they will be accessible via IPv6
        only. If <option>default</option> (which is the default,
        surprise!), the system wide default setting is used, as
        controlled by
        <filename>/proc/sys/net/ipv6/bindv6only</filename>, which in
        turn defaults to the equivalent of
        <option>both</option>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Backlog=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an unsigned integer argument. Specifies
        the number of connections to queue that have not been accepted
        yet. This setting matters only for stream and sequential
        packet sockets. See
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>listen</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details. Defaults to SOMAXCONN (128).</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>BindToDevice=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a network interface name to bind
        this socket to. If set, traffic will only be accepted from the
        specified network interfaces. This controls the
        SO_BINDTODEVICE socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details). If this option is used, an automatic dependency
        from this socket unit on the network interface device unit
        (<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        is created.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SocketUser=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>SocketGroup=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>Takes a UNIX user/group name. When specified,
        all AF_UNIX sockets and FIFO nodes in the file system are
        owned by the specified user and group. If unset (the default),
        the nodes are owned by the root user/group (if run in system
        context) or the invoking user/group (if run in user context).
        If only a user is specified but no group, then the group is
        derived from the user's default group.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SocketMode=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>If listening on a file system socket or FIFO,
        this option specifies the file system access mode used when
        creating the file node. Takes an access mode in octal
        notation. Defaults to 0666.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>DirectoryMode=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>If listening on a file system socket or FIFO,
        the parent directories are automatically created if needed.
        This option specifies the file system access mode used when
        creating these directories. Takes an access mode in octal
        notation. Defaults to 0755.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Accept=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If true, a service
        instance is spawned for each incoming connection and only the
        connection socket is passed to it. If false, all listening
        sockets themselves are passed to the started service unit, and
        only one service unit is spawned for all connections (also see
        above). This value is ignored for datagram sockets and FIFOs
        where a single service unit unconditionally handles all
        incoming traffic. Defaults to <option>false</option>. For
        performance reasons, it is recommended to write new daemons
        only in a way that is suitable for
        <option>Accept=false</option>. A daemon listening on an
        <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> socket may, but does not need to,
        call
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>close</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        on the received socket before exiting. However, it must not
        unlink the socket from a file system. It should not invoke
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>shutdown</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        on sockets it got with <varname>Accept=false</varname>, but it
        may do so for sockets it got with
        <varname>Accept=true</varname> set. Setting
        <varname>Accept=true</varname> is mostly useful to allow
        daemons designed for usage with
        <citerefentry project='freebsd'><refentrytitle>inetd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        to work unmodified with systemd socket
        activation.</para>

        <para>For IPv4 and IPv6 connections, the <varname>REMOTE_ADDR</varname>
        environment variable will contain the remote IP, and <varname>REMOTE_PORT</varname>
        will contain the remote port. This is the same as the format used by CGI.
        For SOCK_RAW, the port is the IP protocol.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Writable=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. May only be used in
        conjunction with <varname>ListenSpecial=</varname>. If true,
        the specified special file is opened in read-write mode, if
        false, in read-only mode. Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>MaxConnections=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>The maximum number of connections to
        simultaneously run services instances for, when
        <option>Accept=true</option> is set. If more concurrent
        connections are coming in, they will be refused until at least
        one existing connection is terminated. This setting has no
        effect on sockets configured with
        <option>Accept=false</option> or datagram sockets. Defaults to
        64.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>KeepAlive=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If true, the TCP/IP
        stack will send a keep alive message after 2h (depending on
        the configuration of
        <filename>/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_keepalive_time</filename>)
        for all TCP streams accepted on this socket. This controls the
        SO_KEEPALIVE socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        and the <ulink
        url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/">TCP
        Keepalive HOWTO</ulink> for details.) Defaults to
        <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>KeepAliveTimeSec=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes time (in seconds) as argument. The connection needs to remain
        idle before TCP starts sending keepalive probes. This controls the TCP_KEEPIDLE
        socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        and the <ulink
        url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/">TCP
        Keepalive HOWTO</ulink> for details.)
        Defaults value is 7200 seconds (2 hours).</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>KeepAliveIntervalSec=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes time (in seconds) as argument between
        individual keepalive probes, if the socket option SO_KEEPALIVE
        has been set on this socket seconds as argument. This controls
        the TCP_KEEPINTVL socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        and the <ulink
        url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/">TCP
        Keepalive HOWTO</ulink> for details.) Defaults value is 75
        seconds.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>KeepAliveProbes=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes integer as argument. It's the number of
        unacknowledged probes to send before considering the
        connection dead and notifying the application layer. This
        controls the TCP_KEEPCNT socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        and the <ulink
        url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/">TCP
        Keepalive HOWTO</ulink> for details.) Defaults value is
        9.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>NoDelay=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. TCP Nagle's
        algorithm works by combining a number of small outgoing
        messages, and sending them all at once. This controls the
        TCP_NODELAY socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>tcp</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Priority=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer argument controlling the
        priority for all traffic sent from this socket. This controls
        the SO_PRIORITY socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details.).</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>DeferAcceptSec=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>Takes time (in seconds) as argument. If set,
        the listening process will be awakened only when data arrives
        on the socket, and not immediately when connection is
        established. When this option is set, the
        <constant>TCP_DEFER_ACCEPT</constant> socket option will be
        used (see
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>tcp</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>),
        and the kernel will ignore initial ACK packets without any
        data. The argument specifies the approximate amount of time
        the kernel should wait for incoming data before falling back
        to the normal behavior of honouring empty ACK packets. This
        option is beneficial for protocols where the client sends the
        data first (e.g. HTTP, in contrast to SMTP), because the
        server process will not be woken up unnecessarily before it
        can take any action.
        </para>

        <para>If the client also uses the
        <constant>TCP_DEFER_ACCEPT</constant> option, the latency of
        the initial connection may be reduced, because the kernel will
        send data in the final packet establishing the connection (the
        third packet in the "three-way handshake").</para>

        <para>Disabled by default.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ReceiveBuffer=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>SendBuffer=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer argument controlling the
        receive or send buffer sizes of this socket, respectively.
        This controls the SO_RCVBUF and SO_SNDBUF socket options (see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details.). The usual suffixes K, M, G are supported and
        are understood to the base of 1024.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>IPTOS=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer argument controlling the IP
        Type-Of-Service field for packets generated from this socket.
        This controls the IP_TOS socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>ip</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details.). Either a numeric string or one of
        <option>low-delay</option>, <option>throughput</option>,
        <option>reliability</option> or <option>low-cost</option> may
        be specified.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>IPTTL=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer argument controlling the IPv4
        Time-To-Live/IPv6 Hop-Count field for packets generated from
        this socket. This sets the IP_TTL/IPV6_UNICAST_HOPS socket
        options (see
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>ip</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        and
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>ipv6</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details.)</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Mark=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer value. Controls the firewall
        mark of packets generated by this socket. This can be used in
        the firewall logic to filter packets from this socket. This
        sets the SO_MARK socket option. See
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>iptables</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ReusePort=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. If true, allows
        multiple
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>bind</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>s
        to this TCP or UDP port. This controls the SO_REUSEPORT socket
        option. See
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SmackLabel=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>SmackLabelIPIn=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>SmackLabelIPOut=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a string value. Controls the extended
        attributes <literal>security.SMACK64</literal>,
        <literal>security.SMACK64IPIN</literal> and
        <literal>security.SMACK64IPOUT</literal>, respectively, i.e.
        the security label of the FIFO, or the security label for the
        incoming or outgoing connections of the socket, respectively.
        See <ulink
        url="https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/security/Smack.txt">Smack.txt</ulink>
        for details.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SELinuxContextFromNet=</varname></term>
         <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd
         will attempt to figure out the SELinux label used for the
         instantiated service from the information handed by the peer
         over the network. Note that only the security level is used
         from the information provided by the peer. Other parts of the
         resulting SELinux context originate from either the target
         binary that is effectively triggered by socket unit or from
         the value of the <varname>SELinuxContext=</varname> option.
         This configuration option only affects sockets with
         <varname>Accept=</varname> mode set to
         <literal>true</literal>. Also note that this option is useful
         only when MLS/MCS SELinux policy is deployed. Defaults to
         <literal>false</literal>. </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>PipeSize=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a size in bytes. Controls the pipe
        buffer size of FIFOs configured in this socket unit. See
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>fcntl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details. The usual suffixes K, M, G are supported and are
        understood to the base of 1024.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>MessageQueueMaxMessages=</varname>,
        <varname>MessageQueueMessageSize=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>These two settings take integer values and
        control the mq_maxmsg field or the mq_msgsize field,
        respectively, when creating the message queue. Note that
        either none or both of these variables need to be set. See
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>mq_setattr</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>FreeBind=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. Controls whether the
        socket can be bound to non-local IP addresses. This is useful
        to configure sockets listening on specific IP addresses before
        those IP addresses are successfully configured on a network
        interface. This sets the IP_FREEBIND socket option. For
        robustness reasons it is recommended to use this option
        whenever you bind a socket to a specific IP address. Defaults
        to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Transparent=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. Controls the
        IP_TRANSPARENT socket option. Defaults to
        <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Broadcast=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. This controls the
        SO_BROADCAST socket option, which allows broadcast datagrams
        to be sent from this socket. Defaults to
        <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>PassCredentials=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. This controls the
        SO_PASSCRED socket option, which allows
        <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> sockets to receive the
        credentials of the sending process in an ancillary message.
        Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>PassSecurity=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. This controls the
        SO_PASSSEC socket option, which allows
        <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> sockets to receive the security
        context of the sending process in an ancillary message.
        Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>TCPCongestion=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a string value. Controls the TCP
        congestion algorithm used by this socket. Should be one of
        "westwood", "veno", "cubic", "lp" or any other available
        algorithm supported by the IP stack. This setting applies only
        to stream sockets.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ExecStartPre=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes one or more command lines, which are
        executed before or after the listening sockets/FIFOs are
        created and bound, respectively. The first token of the
        command line must be an absolute filename, then followed by
        arguments for the process. Multiple command lines may be
        specified following the same scheme as used for
        <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> of service unit
        files.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ExecStopPre=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>ExecStopPost=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Additional commands that are executed before
        or after the listening sockets/FIFOs are closed and removed,
        respectively. Multiple command lines may be specified
        following the same scheme as used for
        <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> of service unit
        files.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Configures the time to wait for the commands
        specified in <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
        <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
        <varname>ExecStopPre=</varname> and
        <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> to finish. If a command does
        not exit within the configured time, the socket will be
        considered failed and be shut down again. All commands still
        running will be terminated forcibly via
        <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and after another delay of this
        time with <constant>SIGKILL</constant>. (See
        <option>KillMode=</option> in
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.)
        Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such
        as "5min 20s". Pass <literal>0</literal> to disable the
        timeout logic. Defaults to
        <varname>DefaultTimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the manager
        configuration file (see
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
        </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Service=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies the service unit name to activate on
        incoming traffic. This setting is only allowed for sockets
        with <varname>Accept=no</varname>. It defaults to the service
        that bears the same name as the socket (with the suffix
        replaced). In most cases, it should not be necessary to use
        this option.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>RemoveOnStop=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If enabled, any file
        nodes created by this socket unit are removed when it is
        stopped. This applies to AF_UNIX sockets in the file system,
        POSIX message queues, FIFOs, as well as any symlinks to them
        configured with <varname>Symlinks=</varname>. Normally, it
        should not be necessary to use this option, and is not
        recommended as services might continue to run after the socket
        unit has been terminated and it should still be possible to
        communicate with them via their file system node. Defaults to
        off.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Symlinks=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a list of file system paths. The
        specified paths will be created as symlinks to the AF_UNIX
        socket path or FIFO path of this socket unit. If this setting
        is used, only one AF_UNIX socket in the file system or one
        FIFO may be configured for the socket unit. Use this option to
        manage one or more symlinked alias names for a socket, binding
        their lifecycle together. Defaults to the empty
        list.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>FileDescriptorName=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Assigns a name to all file descriptors this
        socket unit encapsulates. This is useful to help activated
        services to identify specific file descriptors, if multiple
        are passed. Services may use the
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds_with_names</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        call to acquire the names configured for the received file
        descriptors. Names may contain any ASCII character, but must
        exclude control characters or <literal>:</literal>, and must
        be at most 255 characters in length. If this setting is not
        used, the file descriptor name defaults to the name of the
        socket unit, including its <filename>.socket</filename>
        suffix.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

    <para>Check
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    and
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    for more settings.</para>

  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
      <title>See Also</title>
      <para>
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds_with_names</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
      </para>
      <para>
        For more extensive descriptions see the "systemd for Developers" series:
        <ulink url="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activation.html">Socket Activation</ulink>,
        <ulink url="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activation2.html">Socket Activation, part II</ulink>,
        <ulink url="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/inetd.html">Converting inetd Services</ulink>,
        <ulink url="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activated-containers.html">Socket Activated Internet Services and OS Containers</ulink>.
      </para>
  </refsect1>

</refentry>